An appeal court in France has ruled that 25 veterans of the nuclear weapons tests in French Polynesia and Algeria have to be compensated for ill-health.
Picture taken in 1971, showing a nuclear explosion in Mururoa atoll. Photo: AFP
The decision by the court in Nantes overturned the earlier rejection of their cases by lower courts in four different French cities.
In one case, a navy officer was diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of 51 after serving in French Polynesia four times between 1968 and 1992.
Six years ago, he had applied for compensation which was refused.
According to court documents he is now eligible for compensation of about $US600,000.
France has been slow in compensating test victims as it claimed until 2009 that its nuclear weapons tests were clean.
About 150,000 personnel served the French military's nuclear testing programme which ran over almost four decades.